Take a week in early April as an example. On the first day there is frost in the morning, but a warm sun in a brilliant blue sky raises the thermometer to above at noon, and people begin to talk of their gardens. That night there is no hint of frost even in the coldest valleys. The next day a dry wind blows from the south; the tem perature reaches by noon; the robins chirp on the lawn; the buds on the lilacs swell visibly; and people wish they had put on their summer clothes. The third day the wind has shifted to the southeast, and the air though still warm is soft with moisture and feels much pleasanter than the day before. All day clouds come and go, the beautiful billowy clouds of spring. Several times little showers fall, but after a few minutes the sun comes out again. People say to one another, "April showers bring May flowers." In the afternoon a warm rain begins, but by morning the wind has shifted to the east and the air is cooler. Then toward evening a violent gale blows from the north, the thermometer drops an hour, and the ground is cov ered with snow to a depth of an inch or two. That night the clouds disappear before a strong northwest wind, the stars shine like twin kling points in a sky of crystal, and it seems as if winter nad returned. Yet the next morning the air is bracing rather than cold; the lilac buds are larger then ever, and when the warm sun melts the snow the grass appears surprisingly green. And so the weather comes back to where it started. Within five days the temperature has varied from almost arctic to almost tropical; the humidity has ranged from that of deserts to that of mid ocean; and the wind has changed from the zephyrs of the horse latitudes to the gales of the roaring forties. Such are the habits of the weather in some of the regions of cyclonic storms.
Where is the Ideal Climate for Man's Work?—We are now ready to ask ourselves what parts of the world have the best climate. Remember that the best climate has three chief characteristics: (1) It must have cool but not cold winters, as a mental stimulus, and warm, but not hot summers as a physical stimulus. (2) It must have a fairly high humidity except in warm weather. (3) It must have frequent changes of weather. No region on earth fully satisfies all three of these requirements. Southeastern England and the neigh boring parts of continental Europe come nearest to the ideal. Their chief limitation is that changes of weather are not quite frequent and strong enough, and there are sometimes long periods of monotonous dampness. Farther east, in Germany, the conditions are much like those of the southern New England States and New York except that changes are not quite so numerous nor so extreme. The northern United States east of the Rocky Mountains is almost ideal in its number of storms and its humidity, but its winters are too cold and its summers often too hot. The western coast of the United States, on the contrary, is almost ideal as to temperature and has a favorable degree of humidity most of the time. It does not have enough storms,
however, and hence is too monotonous.
Japan is another country that approaches the ideal climate be cause of its favorable temperature, many storms, and frequent changes. The chief difficulty in the southern part where most of the people live is that the summers are too warm and especially too moist.
In the southern hemisphere, New Zealand has probably the best climate, for there are no extremes of temperature and storms are fairly abundant. The southeastern corner of Australia also has a fairly stimulating climate, as have parts of Argentina and Chile, but in these three regions cyclonic storms are not very numerous and hence there is not sufficient variability.
A Map of Climatic Energy.—Fig. 85 shows how human energy would be distributed if it depended wholly on climate. Of course it actually depends also on many other conditions such as inheritance, food, shelter, and training, but for the present purpose we may omit these. The heavily shaded parts show where the climate has the greatest effect in giving people good health and making them ener getic. Notice the two main dark areas, one in the United States and the other in western Europe. The area in the United States is interrupted somewhat in the desert parts of the country because of the long summer heat and drought. The European area projects east ward into Russia on the borders of Siberia, but gradually disappears, for many of the cyclonic storms die out, while extremes of tempera ture and of dryness prevail in the center of the continent. Only on the far eastern side of Asia in Japan does another area of high energy appear. South of the three good areas in the United States, Europe, and Japan, the conditions of health and energy steadily decline, and reach their worst near the equator. Then they improve, but nowhere in the southern hemisphere do they rise as high as in the north. Thus three main facts appear: (1) the north temperate zone of cyclonic storms is much the best part of the world; (2) the interiors of conti nents in the zone of cyclonic storms are usually not so good as the coastal regions; and (3) the southern hemisphere has good areas corresponding to those of the northern, but not equal to them.
How Climate Influences Character.—Energy has an important relation to character. Where the climate is stimulating it is easy for people to be industrious. When they get up in the morning they often feel so much like work that they are eager to begin before the regular time. Such people are likely to be inventive or to make im provements and carry out reforms. They do not necessarily have more ideas than others, but their energy makes it possible to put the ideas into practice. In an invigorating climate it is also easier to be honest and sober and self-controlled than in a more enervating one. It is much easier to speak the truth or to control one's temper when one feels strong than when one feels weak.